**Disclaimer: The content of this post reflects my own personal views, opinions, and experiences.
This post does NOT express the views or opinions of my employer.**
The venue: The Smith Center
(stock images)
Covid Tests To Date: 93
TL;DR TikTok: CLICK HERE-------------------------------------------------------
Now that we are only bopping around Pacific Standard Time for the rest of the tour, we don't have to get up quite so early for flights, and there are no layovers. Direct short flights. Very nice!
So we left the hotel at 11, had an hour at the airport for lunch, and flew and landed and fought traffic and got to the hotel by around 4:30pm.
It's the Golden Nugget, which is "Old Vegas", Fremont Street.
In fact, the circus train used to park right next to the Gold Nugget. I hope to find the yard and take a picture.
The rooms are spacious but very sparse and with very little in the way of amenities for long-term guests.
No refrigerators, microwaves, or coffee machines.
Also no grocery within two miles (which is the farthest I'll walk in this kind of heat with groceries).
I'm going to have to improvise. But before that, I wanted to find a treat :)
Vegas has an AWESOME Chinatown. This picture is of just one little plaza. Row after row of strip malls packed with Korean BBQ and Chinese street food and K-pop/J-pop stores and Asian fashion outlets. Delicacies are to be found on literally every corner, with creperies and shaved ice and seafood skewers and giant bowls of pho or udon available in every single plaza.
I could literally spend DAYS exploring here.
Fortunately for my bank account, I don't have days. I had a few hours.
So I Ubered to SomiSomi for a taiyaki ice cream.
Taiyaki is a fish-shaped waffle filled with something sweet, usually red bean curd or custard or ube paste.
This was actually a Korean spin on taiyaki called "ah-boong", where you use the fish waffle as a cone for some ice milk.
Here is the mold for the fish waffle. A true taiyaki is flat, but see the oval shapes on the left?
That is to make the batter spread to the sides for a cone shape.
And here is the waffle itself before being filled. Look at how their little eyeballs are different!
You choose one filling for the taiyaki (custard, red bean, ube, or nutella) and then choose an ice milk flavor.
Everything sounded fantastic, they had so many good flavors like black sesame and matcha and milk tea as well as more "normal" flavors like strawberry and chocolate. I had to get the craziest thing I could find, which today was an ube-horchata swirl.
It was incredibly good. Ube is a purple sweet potato, so it is an earthy and sweet flavor. Horchata is a creamy, spiced rice milk.
The two flavors matched beautifully, and I was sorry that it was so hot because I had to eat quickly before it melted.
I've had taiyaki before but it was always prepackaged and had a chewy texture.
This was crisp and fluffy, with a lovely vanilla-egg flavor that was just fantastic. I got the custard filling and it was so creamy and delicious.
Here's the inside showing the custard, and the half-chewed fish (sorry it's so messy but there was no pretty way to eat this):
The shop was also selling a variety of collectible pins, and I just could not leave without this adorable ah-boong pin!
It even had the same colors as my cone!
That done, it was time to hit the 99 Ranch next door.
You guys already know that I love Asian food. But did you also know that a lot of Asian food is non-perishable? Convenient!
I shopped very carefully, examining packages to check for any "refrigerate after opening" warnings. I also kept an eye on serving sizes; canned food with more than two servings is not an option without a fridge. I aimed for high protein content, low sugar, low salt, and overall highest nutrition options. This could be my only chance to get groceries all week and I really wanted to make it count.
Then a trip to Albertson's for more normal fare like protein shakes, tuna and chicken pouches, canned vegetables, and bread.
Back at the hotel I started unpacking. First I set up my little cooking and coffee stations for the week.
This is not unusual, but they will get more use this week due to lack of amenities.
And then I packed a table with all of my food.
I'm using Garden of Life protein powder in place of both eggs and yogurt this week.
It's high in protein and has a lot of added nutrients and fiber, plus probiotics, so I think it will do nicely though it'll be less satisfying.
Next I checked out all of the cool stuff I'd found at 99 Ranch:
- Freeze-dried hawthorn berries: Low in sugar, good for you, flavor like cranberries or raspberries.
- Dried filefish: I thought this was a jerky (technically it is) but you're supposed to heat it up to soften it before eating. Which I did, and it was delicious! Sweet and salty and chewy. A little high in sugar but otherwise not bad.
- Dried bean curd: This was with the jerkys so I was hoping it could be eaten like one. It ended up tasting awful, like liquorice?? So this was the only thing that I threw out :(
- Pouch of misc freeze-dried fruit: Yes I know there are many shelf-stable fruits, but this looked fun to try :) There were whole dried peach and apple slices, some mango, and some whole strawberries. They were really good in oatmeal or by themselves.
I also found some prepackaged pho and Korean BBQ.
The pho includes EVERYTHING, even the chicken! You just need to add hot water.
And the BBQ is self-heating! I've seen videos of such products before on YouTube but this is the first time I'll get to try one out!
Then there was this "Instant Cereal".
There was a whole shelf of these at 99 Ranch in varying flavors, from plain oatmeal to rice porridge with nuts and seeds to mung bean and peanut varieties. All of them seem to be very sweet, and some were labeled as "dessert soup". I didn't want to get "junk food" but was so intrigued that I had to at least try one! Can't wait to see what it's like!
I also picked up some drinks to try (gotta stay hydrated in the desert, amirite?)
Three of these are flavored sparkling water, the one with the white rabbit is a soda that I've seen across social media and wanted to try.
The two small bottles are sweetened using sucralose, which is a shame, but I cracked open the cherry blossom one right away and was surprised at how good it was. It really was a floral, cherry flavor, with a nice fizz. I'd definitely drink it again!
I tried the others later in the week.
The Bing De Bao soda was really good. It was kind of like cream soda but with a more yogurt-y flavor.
The watermelon seltzer was tasty, nothing special just good.
The yuzu seltzer was tart, being unsweetened and all, but it felt refreshing and citrus-y.
Anyway, I finished unpacking and got cleaned up, then crashed for the night.
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Around 5am I woke in a panic because my throat was sore.
Remember when all that meant was that you might have a cold coming on, or that your throat might be irritated from the dry desert air?
Through sleep-crusted eyes I poked at the back of my throat and stared at it with my phone light.
It looks a little red, and it's only sore on one side.
Too tired to deal with it, I went back to bed.
When I actually got up it was 9:30, and I made oatmeal with hawthorn berries and a Core protein shake for breakfast.
I had received some paperwork from my new part-time job with TSOLife, so I filled that out (there was no W-4 so maybe they'll send it later?), then I sent my sister a b-day present and did my dishes and walked to Walgreens for a rapid test because the slightest sniffle could mean that I need a sub. We're getting tested after tonight's show but I think it would be irresponsible of me to spread covid around all day before that!!
The test came back negative, but as the day went on I was not feeling much better and was starting to get concerned.
So I texted our covid officer, who gave me a rapid test before last night's show. Which also came back negative.
So I played the show with a sore throat, and felt body aches setting in. Not good.
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Tossed and turned all night long with fever dreams, aches, snot, etc.
Was up at 8am and immediately took the second rapid test.
Welp. That's that.
Go figure, the most antisocial, introverted, never-hangs-out person has to go and get covid despite obsessive social avoidance and mask-wearing and hand-washing. And go figure, it has to be just as we've returned from a three week layoff.
And all my lovely explorations and foodie plans, out the window. Drat.
What this means is I will have to isolate for 10 days, and cannot return to work until the second week of Costa Mesa.
The company will have to find a trombone sub for all of those shows, possibly two if they can't get someone to travel to Costa Mesa with them.
On Day 6 if I'm testing negative I will be allowed to drive myself to Costa Mesa (next Tuesday) so that's one blessing, I won't have to spend much extra time at the Golden Nugget.
Also thankful that I'm a cheapskate who would rather eat canned tuna than eat out, because I have plenty of food to get through the week.
Also thankful that I DIDN'T go to Steve's cast party on Monday, where I probably would have spread this to other people.
Symptoms are hitting pretty hard, but my new part time job has started sending paperwork and setup stuff and has scheduled trainings and Zoom meetings, so I forced myself to complete as much of it as possible before 5pm EST.
I couldn't find a big portion of the paperwork, and I'm not sure if that's because I can't think straight or I really didn't receive the email.
As the day went on I tried to nap but failed, posted some stuff online, and made myself the instant pho for dinner.
It was quite good, way better than canned soup. The chicken was unprocessed thigh meat with collagen, making the broth savory and rich and just what one wants when one is not feeling well. I left out a lot of the seasoning packet to cut down on salt, and added some canned vegetables.
The ingredients in the bowl. Noodles have been cooked, just boiling water to make the broth.
Final soup with hoisin and hot sauce added.
The rest of my night was spent worrying about tomorrow's job training, worrying if I'd completed everything correctly, worrying about going stir crazy, worrying about how I'm going to get this and that done. Well I did TRY not to worry. Sigh.
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Woke up early for job training, feeling awful and wishing I could have slept.
BUT, if I lay out now this will become a task to do later, so, may as well do it. I can sleep all day if I like.
Training was good, though a little "spread", if that makes sense.
Like, trying to cover a lot of steps and processes and information in a pretty short session.
We learned a bit about the company, it's goals, the internal structure, what our role would be.
Then we watched someone demo how we'd do our job (or part of our job), which we couldn't do ourselves because none of us had been granted admin access just yet. It looks pretty straightforward, it's just a matter of remembering in what order to complete the steps, which websites and programs are for what steps of the process, and really working hard to make sure every single bit of info is transferred from one information source (a document or recording) to another (the resident profiles and online analytics database).
Doing this work means I will get to use Slack for the first time; it's just a chat, but pretty much everyone I know has used it by now except my non-administrative ass :p That and many other shared drives and programs and such, some I've heard of (Google Dashboard) and some that I haven't (Asana). It was all novel and therefore interesting.
Later in the day we got our admin access, and were each given a profile to try.
By this point I was feeling yucky again (my ibuprofen wore off) so I ended up working my profile in 20-minute chunks because I kept having to stand up and flinch from body aches, or make myself some tea, or do that stretch you do when your are sick and hurting, etc.
But eventually I got it done, and I can see how, once I'm not under covid's thumb, this should be actually a really nice activity to do for a few hours each day. So it'll be good for me personally, but also helpful to these folks in these communities, too.
I tried requesting some items from my bandmates, and from the covid safety officer: my fleece sweater and iPad which I'd left at the bandstand; my book, which Yael has retrieved but hasn't brought by yet; and some KN95 masks that I can use once I hit Day 6. The only person who came through was Bill (trumpet), who dropped my sweater and iPad off late last night after the show.
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Felt extra awful on Friday, which was a bummer because I'd hoped to gradually feel better, but I guess that's not how covid works.
Temperature was back up and the body aches were back, along with splitting headache and a feeling like there's a large rock lodged somewhere between my throat and collarbone. A little coughing, but it's a dry cough; it feels like my throat is swollen far down.
Luckily there were no assignments or anything from the new job, so I listened to a Brian May interview that Jameson had sent me, ate breakfast (I can still taste and smell thankfully), cleaned up, and then laid back down for a while. Didn't manage to sleep, but what can ya do.
For lunch I had my self-heating Korean BBQ.
Inside the container was a foil tray, a packet of vegetables, a packet of tofu, two oil pouches, one seasoning blend, a set of plastic chopsticks, and a chemical heating pad.
Following the directions, I put the veg and tofu in the foil tray and put the oils on top.
I didn't use all of the oil because it seemed like a lot.
The vegetables look really good: sliced potatoes, kelp, mushroom, bamboo shoot, and lotus root.
(yeah I overdid the chili oil haha)
In the bottom of the container I placed the chemical pad, then covered it with cold water, placed the foil tray on top, and put a lid on the whole thing. Soon I could hear the water bubbling, and after a few minutes it came to a full-on boil (see TikTok or Instagram for video).
After 15 minutes I removed the lid. The veggies were hot and looked good.
I added some of the seasoning mix and stirred it in.
The vegetables were quite good! Crunchy lotus root, soft white potato, and chewy kelp and mushrooms.
The tofu was meh, overly salted imo, but then again I found most of this overly salted.
And SPICY! Wooo, my sinuses were cleared right out! It was delicious flavor, that kind of fermented, tingly spicy that you get with some pepper pastes. I really enjoyed it, but did have to water it down a bit to be able to eat the whole plate.
Overall this was really good, I'd just go easier on my seasoning next time.
A really convenient and tasty meal!
After lunch I was startled by forceful banging on my door. It was the LVPD doing a "wellness check".
I found out later that they do this in Vegas hotels for any door that's had the "do not disturb" hanger on it for more than 48 hours.
Makes sense, in Vegas.
Soon after that Yael dropped off my book which I was super grateful for; I'd rather not stare at a screen all day.
I read for a little and took what has become my regular afternoon nap.
Then I worked on some more profile data transfers for my new employer. Now that we're trained in this one area we're allowed to grab that type of task for ourselves, and it gives me practice and something to do.
Lexii (our covid officer) came by with some KN95s for me, which is great because now I can safely go pick up food if I need to next week.
...and that was pretty much my day.
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Saturday turned out to be more interesting than I would have liked.
The day started normally, I woke up feeling crummy, had breakfast, did some deskercises, worked on some profiles for my job.
In the afternoon I decided to place a food order because my supplies are dwindling and I needed to stretch them to make it to Monday.
I left clear instructions for the Dasher to leave the food right at my hotel door, but the hotel would not allow her to deliver it to me.
Neither would they bring the food up for me.
Long story short, I tried every alternative that I could think of that would NOT involve me going to the casino lobby and potentially infecting other guests since I'm DEFINITELY shedding covid particles right now. Not one single alternative worked out. I ended up getting permission from our covid officer to go get the food myself, which I did, but it was extremely crowded down there and I was very angry and upset to have to do that. I could have just had them throw out the food and try again tomorrow, but I guess I was in a right state and didn't think of that at the time. Anyway, I wasn't down there for more than two minutes and was insanely careful to the point of even going outside at one point just to avoid a group of elderly women. So I'll try to imagine that I didn't infect anyone.
I ate lunch and appreciated having fresh food for once this week.
Did a little more work, and started looking ahead to Costa Mesa.
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Sunday, I decided to try my "instant cereal" for breakfast!
It came with a little tri-fold plastic spoon in the lid.
You are supposed to eat it cold right out of the can (or in a bowl if you want I guess).
You are NOT supposed to heat it up.
It was very sweet, and made up of cereal grains, beans, boiled peanuts, and small pieces of longan fruit.
I found the "broth" to be off-puttingly thick, so I rinsed the cereal off with some cold water and added a little salt, and that was a vast improvement. With those small changes it was quite delicious, and felt as substantial as a bowl of oatmeal.
Here are the ingredients:
With that, I really am down to the last of my nonperishables.
I did some more profiles for my job, watched TV and Netflix and GoGoAnime, read my book, and started building my TikTok video (that takes a stupid amount of time). And I checked the CDC website and our company handbook to see what I would and would not be allowed to do next week while quarantining from the show.
The CDC guidelines only require that I wear a mask at all times in public, avoid eating in public, and avoid contact with others.
The company guidelines say that I am to wear a KN95 or N95 and socially distance from all members of the cast.
So, I think that I will be able to go for masked walks, pick up food for myself using contactless ordering and pickup, and shop for my own groceries as long as I behave responsibly (minimal time in the store; only touch what I intend to buy; social distancing and masking at all times).
All of that said, I am excited!
Most of my adventures are walks anyway, and I can still do my foodie adventures as long as I'm smart about it. Yay!
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Monday! Finally!!
As I type this the cast should be pulling away on the charter buses.
They should be in Costa mesa in 5-6 hours (they have potential Memorial Day traffic to fight and a planned rest stop).
Tomorrow my isolation ends, and I will be able to rent a car and drive down to Costa Mesa myself.
I have made a list of all the things that I want to do in these final two weeks of tour.
Please rest assured that I will ABSOLUTELY be as responsible as possible, and take every safety precaution, as I complete quarantine.
That said, there's lots of great food that I am excited to try, and things to see!
Woooo!
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